Boundaries

This ecoregion covers the western Philippine islands of Palawan, Calamian Group of islands, and Mindoro that stretch between Luzon and northern Borneo. These islands lie between the South China Sea and Sulu Sea.

Terrestrial habitats

This terrestrial ecoregion is Palawan moist forests [IM0143] (Wikramanayake et al. 2002).

Description of endemic fishes

There are around 15 endemic species, and may be as many as 30 (M. Kottelat pers. comm. 2006). They include several cyprinids, such as Puntius bantolanensis from Lake Manguao in Palawan and P. hemictenus from Lake Naujan on Mindoro (Fishbase 2013).

Justification for delineation

For Southeast Asia, delineations were determined using a bottom-up approach that employed both published and unpublished field data and expert assessment (Abell et al. 2008; Herre 1953). As for other Philippine islands, the fauna consists mainly of either marine species entering inland waters or freshwater species derived from marine ancestors. But there are also a few species of the primary division family Cyprinidae (M. Kottelat pers. comm. 2006).

Level of taxonomic exploration

There are only few and outdated published data on the freshwater fauna of these islands. The list is probably not exhaustive as the freshwaters of these islands are largely unexplored (or at least unreported) (M. Kottelat pers. comm. 2006).